Funeral Held in Baghdad for Kurdish Journalist Killed in Traffic Accident

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Hundreds of journalists gathered in Baghdad on Saturday to attend the funeral of Kurdish journalist Helkut Aziz, who died in a traffic accident while traveling to cover another fatal crash in southern Iraq. Aziz was seriously injured in a collision Friday afternoon on the Baghdad-Basra highway near the town of Dhiwaniyah, south of the capital. He was taken to a hospital in Dhiwaniyah, where he succumbed to his injuries. According to a Shafaq News reporter, the journalists met the ambulance carrying Aziz's body and accompanied it to the Husseiniyah district in southeastern Baghdad. The ceremony concluded at Husseiniyah within Baghdad's administrative boundaries, after which Aziz's family received the body and transported it to Kirkuk for burial. Kurdistan Regional Government President Nechirvan Barzani issued a statement extending condolences to Aziz's family and colleagues, describing him as a valuable, loyal and active journalist. Aziz served as the head of Rudaw Media Network's Baghdad bureau. The accident occurred as he was driving to report on a separate traffic collision in Basra that had killed dozens of people the previous day.